Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises positive effect of the Government's measures to assist more hard working Australians to:

(a) earn more through the tax system, in particular by:

  (i) legislating tax cuts for middle income earners to ensure they are not pushed into the second highest tax bracket;

  (ii) introducing to Parliament the Enterprise Tax Plan, which will extend small business tax concessions to businesses up to $10 million from the outdated $2 million threshold; and

  (iii) supporting employers to invest more, provide more hours and increase wages through a more competitive international tax rate;

(b) save more for their retirement through increased flexibility in the superannuation system, in particular by:

  (i) abolishing the so called '10 per cent rule', which prevents anyone earning more than 10 per cent of their income from salary and wages from claiming a deduction for personal superannuation contributions; and

  (ii) introducing catch up concessional contributions to provide assistance to those—particularly women—who have interrupted work patterns, whether to raise children, look after elderly parents, or seek to boost their retirement savings just before retirement; and

(2) notes with deep concern that the Opposition:

(a) refuses to support tax relief for small business, while at the same time advocating tax cuts for foreign workers;

(b) seeks to abolish measures to improve the retirement savings of hard working Australians, particularly those on low incomes and with interrupted work patterns; and

(c) has no plan for jobs and growth, despite having previously advocated for a more competitive tax rate for employers.

It is a pleasure to stand in this chamber today and speak about the government's positive measures that we are seeking to implement to assist hardworking Australians, in particular in relation to the tax system and the tax cuts for middle-income earners but also in the area of superannuation. The government is committed to substantial economic reforms with the sole purpose of putting more money into the pockets of hardworking Australians. Everything we are doing is designed to reduce the financial burden on families and ensure that Australians are not punished for working hard and can retain more of the money they earn. That is why the government is focused on keeping taxes as low as they possibly can be.

We are doing this through good economic reform that provides tax relief to middle-income Australians. By increasing the middle-income tax bracket from $80,000 to $87,000, more than half a million full-time wage earners will be better off. This tax relief will prevent taxpayers from moving onto the higher 37 per cent marginal tax rate and keep the average full-time wage earners in the lower tax bracket of 32½ per cent for longer. This tax relief will save individuals some $315 a year and demonstrates that, where possible, the government is focused on rewarding and encouraging hardworking Australians. We want to see people take the opportunity to pick up that extra shift, to take that promotion or to get a higher-paying job. We want to see their efforts rewarded; they should not be worrying about the fact that they'll be pushed into a higher tax bracket as a result.

The challenge for any government is to ensure that as many people as possible are contributing to a stronger economy and participating in work. We have seen that over the past 12 months with record growth in jobs in our economy. Over 400,000 jobs were created by the economy over the past 12 months. That is a wonderful reflection of the fact that, as a government, we are seeking to put in place, and have put in place, positive measures which create the incentive for business to grow and invest and, through business growth and investment, the opportunity for people to get a job as these businesses grow and take advantage of the opportunities that have been provided.

We have also sought to help small-business owners, employees and contractors better save for their retirement by abolishing the so-called '10 per cent rule', which prevented anyone earning more than 10 per cent of their income from salary and wages from claiming a deduction on personal superannuation contributions. This will help more people claim a tax deduction for personal contributions to superannuation, benefiting some 800,000 Australians—in particular, people who are freelancers, self-employed contractors and individuals employed by small business. We know that this is critically important because many of these people put everything they have back into their businesses to continue to grow them. Giving them now the opportunity to save for retirement through superannuation gives them another incentive to build and grow their business but also, importantly, accumulate the savings and the funds for when they want to retire so they have financial security in retirement and they are not relying just on the sale of that business.

The ability to accumulate savings during their working life is critically important. That is what these changes allow these people to do. They're helping individuals through the tax cuts or the more flexible superannuation measures. We can see that through supporting people who take these opportunities and in the economic growth it provides through the small-business tax concessions we introduced previously. We are helping build and create opportunities for all Australians.

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion.

Susan Lamb (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think this is a truly outrageous motion. It's outrageous and it's insulting. By introducing this motion to the chamber the member for Forde is showing an absolute contempt for Australians. I know that people in places where I live, like Caboolture, Narangba, Bribie and Dakabin, see through a motion like this. They know where the government's priorities lie, and they're not fooled.

They know that when government talk about tax cuts they're only speaking for the top end of town—the rich and the multinational corporations. They're not speaking for them. They're not speaking for typical families just like them. If they were, they'd be saying something completely different. If they were speaking for them, they'd be talking about how people have been struggling for years and years. Electricity prices are out of control. Private health insurance premiums are not doing any better. They'd be talking about how they need to work harder for ordinary Australians. If the government were speaking for everyday Australians, they would be saying how it's a completely outrageous idea to increase the taxes of Australians earning less than $87,000 a year while they give millionaires and big businesses a handout. What they'd also be talking about is how unfair it is that wage growth has fallen so far behind inflation. What they'd be talking about is the rising cost of living.

Instead, the member for Forde and his government are shouting and screaming about how they want to cut the hard-earned pay of working Australians. They've been shouting and screaming so loudly that they haven't been listening to the countless Australians who are speaking up, calling on them to stop the cuts to things like penalty rates. In this motion that the member for Forde has presented here today he notes that, through legislation, the government want to ensure that middle-income earners aren't pushed into a higher tax bracket. Finally, we've found something that this government will succeed in: if you stop people from earning more, they won't move into a higher tax bracket. It's not a very traditional way of making someone pay fewer taxes, I admit that, but I see the logic. If you earn less income, you'll pay less income tax. If the government asked any regular Australian what they thought of this, they wouldn't get the response they would like to hear; they wouldn't hear resounding support or the jubilant cries of people dancing in the street. What they'd hear is, 'No.' And they'd hear it again and again.

I say to the member for Forde: what you should do is listen, because when you listen you hear things. What you'd hear Australians saying is what they really want: a fairer tax system. They want to see a government that cracks down on multinational companies avoiding paying their share. They want to see shifty tax loopholes that can be exploited by the top end of town closed down—unfair loopholes like income splitting through discretionary trusts or unlimited deductions for high-priced accountants to minimise your tax. The government would hear that regular Australians don't want $37 billion of their money subsidising property investors. They want to see that money going to health. They want to see that money going to education. The government would hear that, while both the government and its trusty old ally One Nation support throwing $65 billion of taxpayers' money at big business, the bulk of which will be sent overseas to foreign investors, it isn't such a good idea in the eyes of the public when people back home in communities like mine are struggling just to get by.

This government has spent years with their fingers in their ears, trying their hardest to avoid listening to the hard truths, trying to avoid hearing what regular Australians want. But, whether they want to hear it or not, they will hear soon enough. When Australia goes to the polls, whether it's this year or next, they will hear loud and clear. They'll hear what Australians want, and what they want is fairness. They want fairness that can only come from a courageous and imaginative government, and we know what that government is. It's a Labor government.

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion moved by the member for Forde. It's great to see the member for Gippsland in the chamber as well. I haven't seen him in here for a while, but it's great to have him back in here. I'm here to support the motion moved by the member for Forde, and an excellent motion it is. I know that, like me and many members on this side of the chamber, the member for Forde gets small business and he gets big business—and we know what the difference is. Those on the other side think it's about turnover and they want to set the bar at $2 million. Setting it at that amount is a perfect example of how Labor just don't understand business, and that's why their leader has declared war on business.

I will start off with a quote from the shadow Treasurer, the member for McMahon: 'It would be a better thing if Australia's corporate tax was more competitive.' Well, we don't have an argument with that; we all agree with that. But, as always with Labor, you don't listen to what they say; you watch what they actually do. It's not about what they say; it's what they do. We on this side of the chamber agree it would be better for Australia and everyday, hardworking Australians if our corporate tax rate was more internationally competitive. The opposition doesn't even have to take our word for it. The Treasury and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development agree. A competitive corporate tax rate benefits Australia and all Australians.

Just last year, the United States slashed its corporate tax rate from one of the highest in the developed world to one of the lowest. It has gone from five basis points above ours to nine basis points below our corporate tax rate. Research conducted by the International Monetary Fund through the World Economic Outlook analysis shows that the US tax cuts will threaten the sustainability of the Australian tax system if we choose to not respond to the changes in the international market. Never fear, the coalition has a plan—the enterprise tax plan—which Treasury has confirmed could, in effect, offset the changes that will result from the US corporate tax cuts. Instead of shrinking our GDP by one per cent, the Treasury suggests we could gain a one per cent increase in our permanent GDP. In dollar terms, that represents more than $12 billion. Those on this side of the chamber understand the need to ensure there is more money in the pockets of Australian businesses, small, medium and large, which then will end up in the pockets of employees, in that there'll be more employees.

Australian businesses are, without doubt, the engine room of our economy. By reducing corporate tax rates, we're providing businesses with the opportunity to re-invest and use that money to hire more people. We've already seen just how much of a positive impact the enterprise tax plan is having. Over three-quarters of the 400,000 jobs created in 2017 were full time. These tax cuts are vital to ensuring we can create jobs for each and every Australian. It is time that the opposition followed the words of the member for McMahon and worked with this government to deliver a competitive corporate tax rate rather than played politics with our economy and the wellbeing of Australians. It is this government that has done what those opposite have never done. We on this side have given tax relief to middle Australia to ensure more money is in the pockets of those who need it.

As a Liberal, I'm of the firm belief it is better if you decide how to spend your money rather than have it taken in tax and decided for you. Under this government, half a million Aussies have been kept from moving to the second-highest tax bracket. That means more in the pockets of those who need it. As the Prime Minister affirmed again just last week in Toowoomba, this government will add more tax relief for Australians to ensure there is more money in the pockets of hardworking Aussies where it belongs. This is in stark contrast to Labor in Australia and abroad. If you look at Jeremy Corbyn and Jacinda Ardern, who went to elections with plans for higher taxes on working families, they are no different to the member for Maribyrnong and member for McMahon, who want more from Australian families.

This government understands the need to support and reward hardworking Australians to help them prepare for life after work. This government knows super is the nest egg for millions of hardworking Aussies, and that is why it removed the 10 per cent rule—a rule that was made to do nothing but impede those planning for their retirement to ensure they can support themselves through later life. This government has gone further to support those who plan and save for their retirement, by allowing catch-up concessional contributions to their super provider. This will provide assistance to those who have interrupted work patterns, most notable for this are women who leave the workforce to raise and care for children. I have more to say but I would like to state that I support the motion by the member for Forde. It is an excellent motion.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just before Christmas I received an email from a constituent, a bloke in his 50s, who needs both of his hips replaced as he's in quite a bit of pain. He was told by the local hospital that the hip replacement would take place in June last year. He's still waiting. Because of the Abbott and Turnbull government's cuts to hospital funding and because of the freeze to the Medicare rebate, the hospital system in Australia is under massive pressure, and people like this bloke who wrote to me are suffering.

Australian families are suffering. They feel that they're losing the cost-of-living battle. Electricity prices have doubled since this government came to office. Health insurance premiums just keep going up and up every year. The cost of child care has risen recently. As for housing, rents and house prices in the electorate I represent, they are astronomical. Under this government 330,000 pensioners have had a cut to their age pension. The government is now trying to axe the energy supplement, which was put in place to help those pensioners get through this difficult period when electricity prices keep increasing. The costs of goods and services are rising, yet wages aren't keeping pace. Annual wage growth has been stuck at two per cent, stubbornly, for the last few years. That's why families and pensioners are falling behind. Incomes aren't keeping pace with the cost of living.

If you're an Australian business, it's a very different story—particularly if you're a large corporation, for whom profits have been increasing handsomely over the course of the last two years. In fact, if you look at the share of economic growth and income in our country, you will see the profits share of GDP over the course of the last two years has increased by two per cent, while the wages share—the workers' share—has decreased by two per cent. Corporate profits are up; real wages are down. What is the Turnbull government doing as a result of that? Well, it's increasing taxes for workers and families throughout the country, by increasing the Medicare levy by half a per cent. That will put more pressure on household budgets.

But what is the government doing for large corporations? They're, of course, getting a tax cut! This is despite the fact that the most recent disclosure from the Australian Taxation Office of the 2,000 largest Australian corporations indicates that 732 of them—or 36 per cent—pay absolutely no tax at all! One of them earned $16 billion from its Australian operations and paid zero tax in Australia! The Turnbull government believes that these corporations deserve a tax cut and that Australian workers should pay more!

The other issue is: who benefits from this company tax cut? It's overwhelmingly foreigners. Because of the operation of dividend imputation and Australian domestic shareholders paying tax through their company and receiving a franking credit for that, it's foreigners who get the biggest benefit from this corporate tax cut. So there we have it! With a $23.6 billion budget deficit, with the Abbott and Turnbull government cutting services to hospitals, to schools and to universities, with the government cutting investment in infrastructure, and with foreigners getting an advantage through tax cuts, what is this government doing? It is making life harder for families, pensioners, for workers while giving corporations and big business a tax cut. No wonder 46 per cent of Australians disapprove of this tax corporate tax cut planned by the Turnbull government. Only 24 per cent approve, while 46 per cent disapprove! It is foreigners who are getting the big benefits from these tax cuts. Australian workers are going to pay for the tax cuts, which are going to end up in the pockets of foreigners and give them a big advantage. It's no wonder people like the gentleman who emailed me about his hip pain and the fact that he can't get a hip replacement and the average Australian worker and their family are struggling to get by. The average pensioner is struggling to put the heater on in winter or the air-conditioning on in summer because they can't afford to pay the electricity bill. They aren't too happy with the Turnbull government and aren't too overjoyed by the fact that this government is going to give a massive tax break to large corporations at the expense of Australian workers.

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a great pleasure to follow on from the ramblings of the previous speaker with the opportunity to talk very explicitly about what this government is doing to build the economic potential of Australia and to build its future. It's one where every single person, whatever their role in society, has a role to play. More than that, the business and entrepreneurial spirit that sits at the heart of this great nation—and, I might add, at the heart of the great electorate of Goldstein—is essential, and we must unleash it to see the realisation of this country's best days ahead.

Since 2001, Australia has gone from having one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the world to having one of the highest. It is much to our detriment because, as a country that has always relied on importing capital, we as a destination need to be attractive in an increasingly globally competitive marketplace so that we can deliver Australians jobs. If we wish to maintain our high living standards and begin to improve wages, to actually see wage growth, which is something that we on this side of the chamber desperately want to see in the interests of households, families and people trying to make a good wicket and have a go, then this needs to change.

The government's enterprise tax plan is doing just that. It is already achieving outcomes for more Australians. Just look at what has been happening in the economy since the election of the Turnbull government, where you're seeing 1,000 jobs created every single day. It's something that any government of any political hue would be immensely proud of and be able to stand up and celebrate as part of building this country's future. It's enabling Australian businesses to reinvest more of their earnings in employing more Australians and growing their enterprises so they can go on and hire more Australians and not just give them their first chance at a job but also keep people in jobs throughout different stages of their lives.

For businesses with an annual turnover of up to $50 million—there's 3.2 million of them employing 6.7 million Australians—we have reduced company tax to 27.5 per cent. It's the lowest level in 50 years. I'm one of those people who've openly declared that they don't think 27.5 per cent is low enough. I'd like to see us go lower, and not just on company tax. I'd like to see wholesale tax reform that sends personal income taxes in precisely the same direction. By changing the tax rate and getting it down to the lowest level in 50 years under the Turnbull government, as well having as the $20,000 instant asset write-off, it is allowing businesses to reinvest in themselves, their energy and their potential and to back themselves to be able to create job opportunities for Australians.

In the great electorate of Goldstein, businesses can be assured that the government is focused, rightly, on unleashing their potential and their employees' potential. We have thousands of small businesses, mums and dads, who have made a good wicket for themselves and who have dared and tried to do something different. There are so many of them. When you go to local markets you see particularly mums—young women—who are doing a wonderful job of investing in themselves. People like Jack and Jules, who are, I think, based in Sandringham or maybe Hampton, are making reusable bags to take to the supermarket. I use them in not just the Goldstein electorate; they are so good I even brought them up to Canberra. Of course, they have a plastic bag ban up here, so you need something to help you on the weekend when you go shopping for food. People are innovating everywhere. There are local candle companies. As well, of course, there are people who are investing in larger businesses, creating jobs not just in Goldstein but across the nation.

Think about Integrated Bulk Systems Australia, a specialist bulk materials handling company that operates in the mining, resources, industrial and chemical industries; Elmark Trading, who are brake and clutch specialists in Highett; Top Titles of Brighton; RK Tech Studio in Brighton; Duram Products Australia in Caulfield South; Jarmans Carpet Repairs in Hampton; JL Carpentry Services in Hampton East; the Ulysses Bookstore in Sandringham—certainly a business I have frequented in the past; Towerheath, based in Highett; Alain Luminaries in Highett; the Bayside Brewing Company in Black Rock—I know that's one many people on the other side of the House would like; and Bygate Marine Service in Bentleigh. They are among so many more that bring this wonderful community alive. The tax plan will allow these businesses not just to grow their opportunities in Goldstein and not just to increase the number of customers that they can serve but also to take their businesses, goods and services to the world. That's what we want to see: the opportunity for growth for every single Australian. I commend the plan to the House.

Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It might be a new year, but this is not a new government that has learned anything over the Christmas break. Here we have before us the same hypocritical, short-sighted, small-minded, trickle-down-economics-preaching government that the Australian people have had to put up with for almost five years now. It is a government that's not concerned with helping families, a government that's not concerned with helping pensioners and a government that's not concerned with helping students but a government that is hell-bent on ramming through unaffordable, ill-conceived and unrequired tax cuts to billionaires and the big banks, whilst everyday Australian families see their childcare support payments cut, their school funding cut, assistance for pensioners cut and support for university students cut. This government's credibility is wafer thin at best.

When it comes to the proposed personal tax cuts, as put forward by the member for Forde just a few moments ago, Deloitte Access Economics partner Chris Richardson said, 'Here we go again, a government lagging in the polls looks set to leave behind a poison pill,' and that the Turnbull government's 'battlers budget' risks undermining economic stability. We've also heard from global ratings agency Standard & Poor's, which maintained its 'negative outlook' on Australia and warned there was still 'significant uncertainty' over the budget's return to surplus and that the government position was still too risky to justify tax cuts. Not even the Prime Minister seemed sure of the government's plan when yesterday we saw him get into a pickle on the ABC's Insiders program, not seeming to understand that the government's plan to hit low- and middle-income earners with a Medicare levy increase will actually result in an increase in personal tax. So, while the Prime Minister and the Treasurer dangle income tax rhetoric at every opportunity, their actions will actually see seven million Australians worse off by $1.7 billion per year. We have also seen in the past few weeks the Prime Minister and the Treasurer crowing their three-word slogan 'jobs and growth', but scratch the surface and it's easy to see that the government have failed as economic managers and, with $65 billion worth of tax handouts to big businesses, they continue to fail the Australian people.

I want to put some facts on the table. We've got a government that has delivered an all-time high of $516.9 billion in government debt. Remember the debt and deficit emergency and the debt trucks? Let's put that into perspective. With $516.9 billion in government debt, it's gone up, not down, over the last five years. It has gone up by an incredible $243 billion since the 2013 election and in the government's own midyear economic forecast was projected to still climb, to $583 billion in 2021. We have a budget deficit of $20 billion, up from a forecast $15 billion when the Treasurer delivered his first budget, and a real-time loss of wages to Australian workers with the cuts to penalty rates on 1 July. The government is overseeing record low growth and overseeing a 75-year high for inequality. So let's not have any more talk that the coalition are good economic managers. Debt is up. Inequality is up. That's what we're seeing time and time again. This is not a government of jobs and growth. It is a government that is out of touch.

So what's the government's answer? The only trickle-down solution they've got is to give an unwarranted $65 billion tax cut to the big banks and big businesses. That's right. Go out into the member's electorate and say, 'Do you support big banks and multinationals getting tax cuts at the expense of investing in education and health services?' I know what the answer is in my community. Last year, company profits rose by more than 30 per cent while wages only rose by 1.5 per cent, leaving the share of wages in national income at 51.5 per cent, the equal lowest level since the 1960s.

Don't take my word for it. Even the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Philip Lowe, is on the record as saying Australia's economy is suffering a crisis in wage growth. The government is effectively sending the wages of working Australians backwards whilst giving handouts to the companies which employ them and which are making record profits. It's no wonder that my local paper today highlighted the fact that we are at an all-time high when it comes to payday lenders in this country, because people simply cannot pay their bills. Over 600,000 households rely on those payday loans and 1.8 million households are now declared financially distressed. This government's record, when it comes to delivering real wage growth and when it comes to delivering the spoils of economic growth, is found to be wanting. The community that I represent and communities right across Australia deserve much better than the trickle-down economics that this government is delivering.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the heart of Liberal tradition is the importance of the individual. The tradition manifests itself in economic policy in the following way: the individuals, not the government, know what is best for them; governments should take from the individual in the form of taxation only what is needed for essential services and no more; and governments should be frugal with public money for that money belongs to the individual and not the government itself. Therefore, when it comes to government, one of the ways in which Liberal philosophy manifests is in our desire to reduce the burden of regulation and taxation on the individual. We owe it to Australians to give them as much support as possible, while taking as little tax back as is responsible. The government is not a wealth creator, so nor should it be a wealth taker. This is not to diminish the significance of tax in funding services which are vital to our society, but our philosophy recognises that the role of government is to create the conditions in which the individual can succeed and do his or her best.

Former Prime Minister John Howard and former Treasurer Peter Costello led the country for nearly 12 years, winning a record total of four elections. Their popularity with voters is in large part explained by an economic agenda that advanced Australia. The introduction of the new tax system, with the GST as its central plank, was a fundamental measure that introduced a GST, reduced tax on income and shifted it to spending. Instead of punishing people for working and earning, Howard and Costello flattened the income tax system, energising the economy. Instead of taking more tax, Howard and Costello fought for a fairer tax system. This saw the provision of the largest tax relief in Australia's history, with cuts in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. The Howard-Costello government eliminated Labor's $96 billion of government's debt. They oversaw a GDP growth rate of 3.6 per cent per year, on average, and an increase in average household income between 1994 and 2007 of 50 per cent. These achievements were not the results of higher taxes but, rather, the product of a fiscal program that actually cut taxes. The Howard government's success was based on its firm commitment to Liberal values. That's a tradition that continues today.

The motion from my friend, the member for Forde, reminds us that the Turnbull government has demonstrated a continuing commitment to reduce the tax burden on hardworking Australians. We've legislated tax cuts for middle-income earners so that they're not caught by bracket creep, lifting the $80,000 middle-income tax threshold to $87,000. We've also legislated small business tax cuts to their lowest level in 50 years: 27½ per cent for a business with a turnover of up to $25 million. They'll also benefit businesses with a turnover of $50 million by 1 July this year.

As a result of the government's policies, 3.2 million businesses, employing 6.7 million Australians, will pay less tax. There's more relief in sight when this rate is reduced even further to 25 per cent by 2026. We legislated instant asset write-offs for small business which saw 300,000 small businesses last year instantly deduct machinery and equipment from their tax bills. The temporary deficit levy, which sought to address Labor's damning debt legacy, has been removed as promised. We recognised the rising cost of living and responded with tax cuts, the National Energy Guarantee that will cut power bills and a housing plan that improves affordability. Everything we're delivering seeks to limit the burden on families and increase money in their pockets.

Labor, in contrast, is seeking to increase the burden on the taxpayer. The opposition leader said that business should expect nothing from a Shorten Labor government, and the proof is in their policy. Their policy punishes any small business with a turnover above $2 million, slugging them with a 30 per cent corporate tax rate, which is a full five percentage points higher than what we're seeking to cut over the next decade. Their policy punishes individuals with a top tax rate of 49.5 per cent, making the temporary deficit levy permanent. Their policies amount to $160 billion of new taxes, not just on income but on housing, electricity, small business and investment. There's a clear divide between a coalition committed to keeping taxes as low as they can be and an opposition that believes in trying to tax its way to prosperity. Australia's company tax rates compare unfavourably to jurisdictions like the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore, among many others, but Labor has no plan to increase our competitiveness.

In my maiden speech I argued that Canberra collects too much tax, and I'm pleased to see the progress we've made in cutting taxes in the past 18 months. Promisingly, more tax relief is in sight for middle-income Australian families. Under past and present coalition governments, Australians have reaped the rewards for their hard work. There is more hard work for us as parliamentarians to do so that this may continue, but the people of Australia should know that the coalition government is committed to their cause.

Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Preventing Family Violence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm trying to work out whether this motion demonstrates that the member for Forde is completely out of touch and not paying attention or whether it is truly an exquisite and subtle piece of satire. I choose to believe the latter, so congratulations to the member for Forde for making us all laugh at this motion, which claims that the government is seeking to reduce the tax burden on hardworking Australians. This is at the very time this government has, before this very parliament, legislation that seeks to increase income taxes for everyone who earns $21,000 or more. This increase in taxes that the Turnbull government is seeking to impose would mean a worker on $55,000 would pay an extra $275 in taxes a year, while someone on $80,000 would face an extra $400. You'd have to admit that claiming that the Turnbull government is seeking to reduce the tax burden on hardworking Australians simply doesn't stack up, if you look at the objective reality of the thing.

Speaking of hardworking Australians, what about hardworking Queenslanders? What about the proposal that's currently on the table to change the GST so that my state, Queensland, will lose around $1.5 billion in GST revenue? That's 5,000 teachers, 5,000 nurses, 3,000 police and more than 1,100 firies, if you want the equivalent of $1.5 billion in GST. What's the Turnbull government doing about this? Is the Turnbull government coming out and saying, 'No, we're not going ahead with this plan; we're not going to take $1.5 billion in GST revenue away from Queensland'? Of course not. We've heard nothing from the Prime Minister that indicates he is taking seriously what harm this would do to the state of Queensland. In my electorate of Griffith—which is in the inner suburbs on the south side of the river—we don't want to see a situation where Queensland's budget is cut by $1.5 billion because of this government failing to stand up for the interests of Queenslanders. And where are the Liberal and National Party MPs? Why are they not banging down the door of the Prime Minister's office, demanding Queensland's fair share of GST revenue? Why are the Queensland members of the LNP not demanding that Queensland not suffer this $1.5 billion in cuts to GST revenue?

The member for Forde's from Queensland, obviously, given that Forde is around the Logan area. I didn't hear him stand up in this debate when he moved this motion and say: 'You know what I want? I want Queensland to not lose $1.5 billion in GST revenue.' He did not do that at all. You know why? The Queensland LNP federal members are absolutely nobbled when it comes to standing up to the Prime Minister and demanding their fair share of GST revenue.

The Turnbull government is perfectly happy—and Senator Canavan is perfectly happy—to go around talking about the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund, which is great, except nothing's been spent from it. They're not doing anything with the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund to benefit my state, and it's been ongoing for a number of years. That's all fine and well. You can have these loan funds, you can put this money aside—better if you actually spent it on some infrastructure projects rather than just saying you are going to, of course—but it would be really great if those Queensland senators and members from the Liberal and National parties did the right thing not by their own preselections, not by their own party line, not by the Turnbull government, but by the people who elected them and put them there in the first place: the people of Queensland. I don't want to see fewer teachers or nurses or police or firefighters because this government is full of LNP members from Queensland who don't have the gumption to stand up to the Prime Minister and demand our fair share of GST revenue.

To add insult to injury, this motion is being moved, claiming that the LNP government is somehow doing a great job for Australians in relation to tax and superannuation, at the same time as this government is trying to give away $65 billion in revenue to big end of town corporates; at the same time as they're complaining that millionaires have to pay too much tax. That's what the context is for this motion. I might say that it's also at the same time as they're cutting $17 billion from schools funding and $2.2 billion from universities funding. It's also at a time when more than 2,000 families in my electorate are going to be worse off because of this government's childcare changes. It's also at a time when the government has refused to extend the universal access for kindy beyond the end of 2019. It's an absolute shame.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:01